Cara Delevingne, the Burberry model, turned down the role of Victoria Beckham
in the Spice Girls musical Viva Forever! because it would be a 'career
killer’ for her.

Cara Delevigne has turned down the role of Victoria BeckhamPhoto: GETTY

By Richard Eden

6:26AM BST 26 Jun 2011

For most aspiring actresses, it would be a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity, but Cara Delevingne has turned down the role of Victoria Beckham in the forthcoming Spice Girls musical, Viva Forever!, because she was advised that it would be career suicide for her.

The Burberry model tells Mandrake: “My agent said, 'No, you can’t, it will be a career killer.’ Of course, I loved the Spice Girls. I loved Geri and Baby, but who liked Posh Spice? They said I looked like her and I said, 'That’s not cool, that’s really mean.’ ”

The West End show is being produced by Judy Craymer, who made the hit musical Mamma Mia!, and will have a script by Jennifer Saunders.

Cara, 18, who is the daughter of the property developer Charles Delevingne and the Society model Pandora Stevens, says of the Spice Girls’ agent, Simon Fuller: “When I started modelling, he took me under his wing and I wrote and recorded two albums of music, but at the time I was so young.

Speaking at a party at the Riding House Cafe to celebrate the new collection by the fashion label Willow, the model adds: "They said, 'Right, we can make you into this thing and change your name.’ I said I wanted to know who I am and be who I am and not who someone wants me to be, and I put that on hold.”